A vehicle instrument panel is an important component of a vehicle assembly, carrying a variety of essential, useful, and/or desirable elements. For example, the typical instrument panel typically carries or holds such diverse elements as a steering column/wheel, an instrument cluster, an entertainment center, a glove box and/or other dash-mounted storage compartments, navigation systems, built-in cameras, associated electronic modules, and others.
The vehicle instrument panel also serves an important structural function. In particular, for a desirable passenger cabin occupant experience, a primary requirement is for the instrument panel to be as rigid as possible. A suitably rigid instrument panel ensures an acceptable level of noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), acceptable crash safety performance, and acceptable climate control performance, among others.
Certainly, optimum rigidity could be achieved by making the instrument panel an integral component of the vehicle frame. However, the requirement for rigidity must be balanced against the need to service/maintain the various instrument panel components as needed. In accordance with the complexity of the instrument panel design, in certain situations the entire instrument panel may have to be removed to service a particular part or parts. Thus, typically an instrument panel is made removable to allow access to the components thereof for servicing/maintenance/replacement. This presents an engineering challenge in the design of instrument panels and associated components.
As an example, FIGS. 1A and 1B respectively show a top and a side view of a conventional instrument panel 100. During vehicle assembly, the instrument panel 100 is installed to the vehicle body structure and fastened to the vehicle cowl. As shown in the figures, an instrument panel 102 is typically secured to portions of a vehicle cowl and/or frame 104 by a “top down” or vertical attachment strategy at least at an instrument panel joint 106, such as by a bracket and fasteners of known design. While substantially effective for its intended purpose in a very simple instrument panel, consider the modern instrument panel including a number of tightly packaged components as described above. In such instrument panels, space is at a premium and a readily accessible instrument panel joint 106 may not be an option.
This is illustrated in FIG. 1C showing an electronic module 108 such as a module for a heads-up display (HUD) which for space and/or operability considerations is installed in a location preventing ready access to the instrument panel joint 106 (not visible in FIG. 3). After installation of the instrument panel 100 and HUD 108 (or other module), the vehicle windshield 110 is bonded in place to complete the assembly. In such designs, a repair or replacement strategy requiring removal of the instrument panel 100 would require first removing the vehicle windshield 110 and next the electronic module 108 to access the instrument panel joint 106. This is because in the assembled vehicle there is insufficient space between the windshield 110 and the instrument panel 100 substrate to allow removal of the module 108. Such procedures are time and labor-intensive, increasing associated repair costs. In turn, removal of multiple vehicle components such as the windshield 110 risks damage to such components which risks further increasing the cost of repairs/replacement.
Thus, a need is identified in the art for improvements to vehicle instrument panel attachment strategies, and to components used therefor.